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American politics, Christian values vs Socialism, Corporate Personhood & Paramountcy, Earth’s Climate Crisis, Global Ecocide, Jonestown Massacre 1978, New American Republic 2020, US President Impeachment Acquittal February 2020
Pen Scratch Verse 182 by American Artist Michael Caimbeul
February 5, 2020. This is the day that the United States Senate chose to acquit Republican President Donald Trump of the impeachment charges brought against him by the Democratic controlled House of Representatives. I found the evidence of his guilt compelling. Except for just one of its members, the majority Republican senators chose to stand firm behind their leader. The loyalty to their party is admirable. It’s a valuable commodity in our times of divisive politics. On the other hand, party loyalty doesn’t always align with the best interests of we the people. Ever since corporations gained personhood and began financing politicians, corporate interests have gained paramountcy.
Today, we live in a New Republic. The balance of power has shifted beneath our feet. All that remains for the President and his Executive Branch of loyalists to consolidate their power is to seize control over the Supreme Court of the United States. All they need is a little more time.
Meanwhile, after centuries of human remodeling, Earth’s web of life is over-stressed and in meltdown. Our planet is overheated. Wildfires across drought-stricken grasslands and forests rage with unusual ferocity. The polar ice caps are melting faster than predicted. Mountain glaciers are retreating. Sea levels are rising, redefining coastlines worldwide. Storms powered by overheated oceanic waters batter our coastal cities and island nations, inundating our lives.
The choice is ours. We could hold on firmly to our Chosen One, our Messiah. We could hold onto his promise to make our lives great again: well-paying jobs, a home to raise our families, education for our kids, health care when needed, and a nest-egg for our retirement years. Some among us also hold onto his promise to restore Christian values within our homes, schools, workplaces, communities, and across our nation. Based on some of their actions, it is not a Christian value to uplift the downtrodden and the fallen in their time of need. That’s socialism—to be rejected at all costs.
The future of our nation and the planet our children and grandchildren will inhabit depend on the choices we make in the year 2020. Like our Republican senators, we can put our self-interests and party loyalty before all else. We can choose to remain on the capitalist path of global ecocide, or we can choose to take that least traveled path of protecting what remains of our planetary web of life. We will have no second chance at failure. Time is no longer on our side.
What will it take to free our nation from the grasp of a beloved Chosen One whose loyal followers believe that he has their best interests at heart? Just ask the survivors of the Jonestown Massacre in Guyana on November 18, 1978.
The choice is ours. We could do everything within our power to free ourselves from his grip or we could choose to die with him.
Three Worlds One Vision 
What a strong message.👏👏👏👏
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Thanks for reading, Laleh 🙂
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My pleasure.❤️
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That will be our epitaph.
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Indeed, should anything remain of our civilization.
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You have highlighted the inherent contradiction so well. If all of this is being done in Jesus’ name, shouldn’t the goal be to help the less fortunate, instead of villifying them?
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Exactly, Sean! But believers are great at focusing on those values that matter most to them.
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A lot can happen between now and November.
What interests me most about this situation is that the whole world is so focused on this one man, as though he is the Savior (or the anti-Christ, depending on perspective). There’s a lot else happening in the world, but so many people and the media are so riveted on this one psychodrama that they seem to be neglecting more important, personal, quality-of-life issues.
Possibly the best thing that can happen for world sanity would be to start ignoring Donald Trump.
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Of course but good or bad, people of the Fakebook, Harlequin Romance reading variety, i.e. the brain-dead, love their drama. People with no life glued to the performances of people with fake lives.
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Sad, isn’t it?
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It’s the reality of the world we live in. America just happens to be in the “exceptional” vanguard… and all these discussions bring me back to a time of my personal awakening to angst and anger, and this song by Barry Mcguire, 1964… Read these lyrics and tell me what’s changed for the better? What can man brag of in terms of accomplishments beyond more deadly weaponry… oh yeah, cell phones and computer games and special effects in movies?
The eastern world it is explodin’
Violence flarin’, bullets loadin’
You’re old enough to kill but not for votin’
You don’t believe in war, what’s that gun you’re totin’
And even the Jordan river has bodies floatin’
But you tell me over and over and over again my friend
Ah, you don’t believe we’re on the eve of destruction
Don’t you understand, what I’m trying to say?
Can’t you see the fears that I’m feeling today?
If the button is pushed, there’s no running away
There’ll be no one to save with the world in a grave
Take a look around you, boy, it’s bound to scare you, boy
And you tell me over and over and over again my friend
Ah, you don’t believe we’re on the eve of destruction
Yeah, my blood’s so mad, feels like coagulatin’
I’m sittin’ here, just contemplatin’
I can’t twist the truth, it knows no regulation
Handful of Senators don’t pass legislation,
And marches alone can’t bring integration
When human respect is disintegratin’
This whole crazy world is just too frustratin’
And you tell me over and over and over again my friend
Ah, you don’t believe we’re on the eve of destruction
Think of all the hate there is in Red China
Then take a look around to Selma, Alabama!
Ah, you may leave here, for four days in space
But when you return, it’s the same old place
The poundin’ of the drums, the pride and disgrace
You can bury your dead, but don’t leave a trace
Hate your next-door-neighbour, but don’t forget to say grace
And you tell me over and over and over and over again my friend
You don’t believe we’re on the eve of destruction
No no you don’t believe we’re on the eve of destruction
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Sha’Tara,
We grew up in the same era, so what has happened to those angry voices of the sixties and seventies? For all intents and purposes, they have been silenced by age, death, or despair. They have caved and have become a part of the mainstream they resisted.
But my question remains: What happens next? I may not live to see a rebirth, but while I’m alive, I will continue to respect the planet that has nurtured me. I don’t presume to speak for anyone else.
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“Who ‘We’ white man?” Many things and many people “grew up” in the Sixties and I happened to be in it, teenage years, but old enough to get a sense of what was wrong with society. Never “joined” in the Hippie cum drug scene though did my share of protest. I knew why I was there, many were just there! Me, I never smoked anything in my life and I have a healthy hatred of all drugs, approved or not. I don’t gamble with my life as I’ve never gambled with money. Point is, the Hippies were an undisciplined bunch of irresponsible people with a few exceptions. When the going got a bit tough they became drug addicts or crawled back to daddy for money and a job or position. Another revolution that did its quick 360 and died a well deserved death. Then came the next generation. I just watched a drama in which a university character is arrested for a double murder. He’s asked, “Doesn’t responsibility to your society mean anything to you?” His response was, “I’m a child of the Eighties. There is no society and no responsibility” and smiled. These run the world today.
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When I said “we,” I was referring to you and me. I can’t speak for anyone else, except to say “we” were exposed to similar cultural influences.
I have been thinking that those I knew in the seventies, who were so contemptuous of our parents’ generation, ended up even more materialistic than the generation that went before, and lost their passion for humanitarian change. There are only fragments of that left, and they seem disjointed and unfocused, only united in anger, but lacking a vision of a more mature society.
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I totally agree, Katharine, but that won’t happen. Our Tweeter-in-Chief needs to have all eyes focused on him, to feed his ego. He refuses to be ignored. Social media networks, journalists, TV presenters, newspapers have all suffered backlash for bad reporting. They’re all fake news. If you are the leader of a foreign nation, you would also be foolhardy to ignore his comments. Remember the time he talked about buying Greenland?
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Rosaliene,
I suspect you’re right, because all of the above are fascinated by him, as a rattlesnake fascinates. He’s like an addiction that they can’t get enough of, even knowing the path he follows is suicidal.
Still, I claim that anything can happen between now and November.
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Great piece, Rosaliene. But I don’t think what the republicans did is about “party loyalty”, I think it is about white supremacy.
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Thanks, Kreb. You may, indeed, be right: White supremacists are also a vital part of their party base; not just the Evangelical Alt-Right.
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Facts.
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And often they are one and the same
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Pingback: USA Politics: The Choices We Make – by Rosaliene Bacchus | Guyanese Online
I don’t think that this problem with our climate is soluble any more. Too many big polluters unwilling to change.
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I agree, John, the big polluters continue to push their climate change denial propaganda, thereby making it difficult for truly massive collective action worldwide.
As I understand our grave situation, any action we take now in cutting our carbon emissions to zero would only slow the process. This would give us more time to transition to cleaner forms of energy and relocate coastal towns and cities further inland to higher ground.
We can do this. We have the technology and labor force. The Chinese just built a 1000-bed hospital in ten days to treat their Coronavirus patients.
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Well done and I agree.
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Thanks, Cigarman. So glad that you dropped by 🙂
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A powerful post. I think the proclaimed Christian values are as warped as everything else we hear.
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Thanks, Derrick. We humans are masters at using selective religious text that support our beliefs and behavior.
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This is an excellent post! You have made the case without rancor, without ranting (as I so often do), and with eloquence. Thank you. I would like to re-blog this, with your permission?
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Thanks, Jill. I tore up an earlier draft that I felt was too much of a rant. I enough reading your rants: They help release the tightening knots inside me. It’s tough staying calm with each new assault.
Permission granted. I appreciate that you would like to share my post with your readers. Much appreciated ❤
And thanks for the follow 🙂
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I hear you … believe it or not, I’ve torn up some that I thought were a bit too rant-y. Not many, but a few. Sometimes it’s just good to call a spade a spade. Thank you for your kind permission … it was truly a great post! I meant to ‘follow’ a few days ago, but … I forget more than I retain these days! 😉
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Very powerful writing, Rosaliene. I heard a great podcast last night I thought might interest you. This guy is really good (and very calm about things that make me really hysterical) at unpacking a really complicated political situation: https://soundcloud.com/guidaboni
Listen to the first track.
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Dr. Bramhall, thanks for reading and for sharing the link. I’ll check him out. I’ve noticed he’s also from California.
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What a wonderful evocative poem.
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Thanks, Kathryn 🙂 Interesting that you should consider it poetic.
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I tend to consider a lot of things poetic Rosaliene – life itself for starters 😊🌷
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Reblogged this on Filosofa's Word and commented:
This post by Rosaliene Bacchus is a spot-on summation of where we are today, after last week’s decision by the Senate not to uphold the Constitution. I could not have said it any better, and Rosaliene puts it all into perspective without ranting, without rancor. Thank you, Rosaliene for this excellent post, and for your permission to share it!
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A big thank you, Jill!
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😊
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Powerfully put.
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Thanks, Cath 🙂
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Powerful… May real justice prevail!
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Thanks, Bette.
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Sorry, Rosaliene, but I can’t agree that loyalty to party is admirable if the party is controlled (to put it mildly) by a ego-driven, retain/expand power-at-any-price President who demands loyalty to himself but doesn’t know the meaning of the world otherwise. I’m guessing that you didn’t mean it in an unqualified way — if so, pardon me for the “rant.”
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No problem, Mister Muse. I don’t expect readers to accept my viewpoint. My hope is that, as members of the body politic, we could find common ground for moving forward together as a nation. I know that it’s a lot to hope for right now, given our divisive politics.
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Likewise no problem, Rosaliene. I wouldn’t feel so strongly about it if almost anyone but Trump headed the Republican party, but there is no hope of “one nation undivided” with him. It’s not even the Republican party (as we knew it) any longer, except in name only. It is now the TRUMP party, and the only “common ground” Trump accepts is complete and utter obeisance to Him.
In my opinion, it’s sheer fantasy to hope against hope that Trump will ever be anything other than what he is. He MUST be defeated in November, because the alternative is to kiss our better angels goodbye.
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Wonderful post., Rosaliene. Have you thought of sending this blog to some reputable newspapers or magazines?
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Thanks, James. No, I haven’t considered doing so.
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You have brought me back to wondering whether I should ever refer to myself as a “Christian.” I believe in the teachings of Jesus who shakes his head in sadness over the one chosen by the US electoral college but not by the people. I am thankful for the solitary republican senator who had the integrity and courage to follow his oath to God.
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JoAnna, though I’m no longer affiliated with any specific church or religion, I continue to live according to the teachings of Jesus. He was so clear about how we should treat each other. Romney’s act was, indeed, an act of courage. Now he and his family must face the consequences.
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I agree.
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As Kirkegaard wrote, “Life can only be understood backward; but it must be lived forward.” The times won’t wait for the Trump acolytes to recognize what they are doing to themselves and their families, not to mention humanity and all life on earth. As you suggest, enlightenment and action are required now. Thanks, Rosaliene.
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Dr. Stein, Kirkegaard expresses well humanity’s conundrum. After we’ve driven off the cliff, there’s no turning back.
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Thank you for sharing wonderful thoughts!!… for Donald Trump it is more about his ego and catering to those who would fuel that ego rather than leadership… for those who support him do so with knowing that all they have to do is cater to his ego and they will get what they want…. those that support Trump (or anyone that will support their way of thinking) have found a “comfort zone” and will deny any change that threatens that… 🙂
While keeping an eye on Washington, for change one needs to concentrate on the streets, highways and byways of America, not Washington… 🙂
“It’s time for greatness — not for greed. It’s a time for idealism — not ideology. It is a time not just for compassionate words, but compassionate action. A lot of people are waiting for Martin Luther King or Mahatma Gandhi to come back — but they are gone. We are it. It is up to us. It is up to you. “ Marian Wright Edleman
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Dutch, thanks for dropping by and sharing your thoughts with us 🙂
I totally agree: The agents of change that we urgently need are we the people. You and me.
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I agree with you with reservations, Rosaliene, and quote: “The agents of change that we urgently need are we the people. You and me.” Except I took out the “we the people” out of hand. The “you” also had to go as being too controlling, too full of expectations. It’s “me” and to achieve that, I need to change myself. Some people believe that’s impossible; some believe it’s easy; some believe it’s not necessary. Well, experience says it’s the most difficult path any individual can get on to and hope to stay on. But until I manage that, there can be no “you”. I cannot expect anyone else to complete a task I either did not tackle, or left unfinished. There are no convenient “we” in this business, much less “we the people” because what depends on the collective has no deep conviction, only surface rah-rahs! and is easily and always captured and recycled by the regime, system, status quo, Matrix. That is historical and undeniable fact. What “we” need is to look at our serious problems in a whole new light, and that begins by looking squarely at the ultimate source of those problems: me.
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Powerful for sure Rosaliene, as many have said. I need to believe that karma does exist in some form in our universe. If it does, then Trump and his Republican defenders have a big payday coming.
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Thanks, Henry. In the face of oppression and injustice in our personal lives and across the world, I, too, need to believe in karmic justice.
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My heart aches along with you, Rosaliene. Although I disagree about the loyalty part. I would guess that not a man standing behind DT — those few women that do have gone completely round the bend — is actually loyal to him. They are completely fearful for their livelihoods, their prestige, and all the other bull crap. Fear makes people do strange things. I’m not giving them a pass for being cowards, mind you. You should only take that kind of job if you have a certain degree of courage because no matter what you do, people are going to give you grief and you’ll need a thick skin. But the people in the current Senate are the worst kind of cowards, the panderers who will do anything to save their own skins. It’s despicable. (And sometime I’ll tell you how I really feel about it — haha!!)
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Thanks for sharing, Pam. Loyalty through intimidation appears to work for our president. Fear is, indeed, a powerful force for maintaining control.
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😩😩😩
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A great reminder that we all need to get out & vote
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That was my intention, da-Al. So glad that you dropped by 🙂
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Wow! What a post, Rosaliene; no room for sitting on the fence. A slap of the face and a wake-up call for all who read it. Thanks for sharing.
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Thanks for dropping by 🙂 My apologies for only now responding to your comment which was sent to my spam folder.
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