Against all enemies, both foreign and domestic…

I am going to make one more attempt to tell you how close we are to becoming a totalitarian state with a dictator as our leader. Because I don’t think most people really see the threat looming over us. But it is very real.

When the hardcore members of the republican party talk about enemies of the domestic variety, yes, they do mean terrorists and subversives and traitors, oh my, but the thing you must realize is that their definition of an ‘enemy of the state’ might not be the same as yours.

They don’t always see homegrown militias, paramilitary groups, and armed radical organizations as the enemy. That is because a lot of these people voted them into office. And I don’t just mean those guys who dress up in camouflage on weekends and go out shooting at stuff. This now includes groups as radical as the KKK.

Somehow, these people who are so concerned with keeping America strong, have come to view liberals as the true enemy. They think we are weakening the country. Anyone who wants to take money away from the military and spend it on poor people are traitors.

Women who want the right to choose what they do with their own bodies are more of a threat than those armed ranchers who took over a highway and a state park… carrying guns.

Native Americans protesting an oil corporation desecrating their sacred land are more of a threat than the freekin’ KKK.

People who want to provide healthcare for those that do not have any are a bigger threat than Vladimir Putin.

Bear in mind that many of these people believe the fake news on the internet. And if you look into that stuff, it is pretty scary. There are now viral videos going around, portrayed as actual news stories, saying that the liberals are planning not only violent protests during the inauguration ceremony, but perhaps an actual terrorist attack of some sort… and that liberals are planning a massed, armed uprising in the months ahead.

This is sort of ironic, because I have to admit I had some of the same ideas about the republicans when Obama was elected. I am surprised that not one of those idiots living in a bunker somewhere, worrying that the ‘gov’min’t’ was coming to take away his guns, didn’t take a shot at Obama during all that time. Maybe they were busy working at one of the millions of jobs he created, or getting their teeth fixed with their new health coverage.

All I am saying is that, if you are a liberal, and you stand up to the new administration in any way, that one of tRump’s own advisers admitted during an actual news interview that they are keeping lists of everyone who opposes them… or disagrees with them.

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Is that a moon rainbow?

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I guess it didn’t show up in the photo as well as I was hoping it would It was awesome in real life. It is a circular rainbow around the moon… except it isn’t raining here… and I suspect it isn’t raining on the moon either.

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And what do you call a round rainbow, anyway? Especially if it isn’t raining.

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But I wish the colors had come out better so you could see what I saw.

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I just want a pet dragon, is that too much to ask?

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Maybe I should have filed the spike off and put a saddle there… but still…

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Can we stop calling them buildings?

I get confused by the word ‘building’. Somehow, it is not only a thing you do, but the thing you are doing that thing to. To me, it makes no sense that, once you are done doing that thing, you still call it the same thing you did to do it… if you see what I mean.

I am going to build a building.

I am building a building.

I built a building.

At that point, shouldn’t we start calling the building that you built a ‘built’?

I am going to build a building… (or, would that be: I am going to build a built?)

I am building a building.

I built a built.

I live in a built.

Calling them ‘buildings’ sounds like we are still working on them.

A city should be made up of lots of builts. I know, little red squiggly spell-checker line, ‘builts’ is not a word. But maybe it should be.

A builder builds buildings, a builder built builts.

And, as long as we are on the subject, build/building/built don’t even look like they are spelled right. It is an awkward word. Maybe we should respell them:

I am bilding a bilding.

I am a bilder, I bild bildings.

I bilt a bilt.

Okay, glad I could clear this up for you. This is the kind of common sense leadership that you will end up with… once you elect me as the king of all the known universes.

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Just a sunrise…

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I had to take my mother-in-law to the airport yesterday morning.

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I took these pictures with my cell phone, so the quality could be better.

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Maybe I need to play with the settings. Anyway, I walked out on a little dock to take these pictures of the sun rising over downtown San Diego.

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I saw the Coast Guard dawn patrol flight taking off. I also met a cute little dog, but the picture didn’t come out.

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Okay, zooming does not make it better. I figured after all those tRump posts, this would be a nice change of pace. Plus, I like it when travel and photography bloggers follow me… and then realize what a freak show it is around here. HA!

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I found this one gratuitous selfie of me, riding the cable car on one of our day trips to San Francisco when we were in the Bay Area visiting my mom at Christmas. I don’t think I posted it, but can there ever really be too many pictures of me?

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I’m done talking about tRump… at least until he is sworn in… or does something really stupid… so I guess we will see what the crack squirrels in my head come up with next.

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Stop telling us you are the ‘real America’, tRump supporters!!!

Because you aren’t. This country was established under the premise of freedom of religion for everybody, not just white Christians. Yes, we had slavery, but we fought a war to end it, and then fought political battles to make all people equal under the law, because that is the way the majority wanted it.

We aren’t strong and great because our armies can beat other armies. We are strong and great because no one else uses their military as often or as effectively to come to the aid of other countries that are suffering a famine or natural catastrophe.

I’m sorry if we are leaving you behind. I’m sorry if you think things were better in the ‘good old boys’… whoops… sorry… I mean: ‘good old days’.

Most Americans want the LGTB communities to be treated fairly, for minorities and immigrants to be included in the American dream, for women to be treated as partners in life, for the poor to be able to rise out of poverty and the sick to be healed.

I’m sorry if this means you might have to give up a few things. I’m sorry if this might cost you a few dollars in taxes. I’m sorry if this means you aren’t first in every line anymore.

Someday, the world will look back on this time as the last, dying gasp of people who put themselves first above everybody else, no matter the cost to their own country or morality. If you want to go down in history as one of the dying breed of Archie Bunkers, then go right ahead. You are putting a speed bump on the road to a better world of brotherhood and togetherness, you aren’t derailing the train. Every year, more children who want an inclusive society are born, and every year, more dinosaurs die off. This is the evolution you don’t want to believe in. We will be a mixed-race society of open-minded people, and you can’t stop it. You can’t make all the people who are different than you, or disagree with you, vanish. Hitler tried that, and the world rose up and crushed him like the cockroach that he was.

Maybe you aren’t a racist, or a sexist, or a homophobic, or a moron, but you voted with a lot of people who are those thing. I didn’t.

And you know what else? You are better off now, at the end of Obama’s presidency, no matter how much FOX news or made-up online news or your own fear are telling you you aren’t. And you won’t be, by the time this new guy gets out of office.

So enjoy it while you can.

 

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An open letter to the ‘good’ people who voted for tRump…

You decided to overlook his racist comments and followers, even though you aren’t a racist. You ignored his statements about women, even though you aren’t a sexist. You ignored his mocking of a disabled reporter, even though you have empathy for the handicapped. You don’t let yourself worry about the fact that his VP pick is a homophobic, even though you don’t particularly hate the gay community. You downplayed his Twitter ramblings, his obvious immaturity, his lack of ethics, his shady business dealings, corruption, bankruptcies, fraud, lack of respect for the law, refusal to show his tax returns, and the way he is totally against immigrants, but somehow, he circumvented laws to let his model wife come to this country, that the KKK supports him, that a Russian semi-dictator helped get him elected, and the fact that he is just a world-class liar and slime ball.You consider yourself to be a good person. You forgive him for all of this, and I just have one question to ask you:

Why?

I really want to know.

I don’t want to make assumptions, or judge you based on what I think. I want you to tell me why?

So you can pay a few less dollars in taxes, or get a better job? Do you honesty believe that the rest of the world is now going to look at America as being better and stronger again? Do you think that people around the world will hate us less? Do you really think that he is going to fix things?

Please, help us understand what is going on.

If you, a good person who voted for tRump, can’t explain it to us, then we have to go by what we see, and what we hear from his most rabid and hateful supporters.

Please, tell us how you came to this place.

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So you elected an asshole: A survival guide… the final solution… uh… I mean chapter…

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I know I already made the joke about disguising yourself as a tRump supporter in order to make it through the next four years, but I could never do that. I was going to finish this series with the joke that I will probably end up disguising myself as  an inmate in one of America’s new concentration camps.

The thing is… and this is the most important and scariest ‘thing’ I ever put in a post… we are much closer to America becoming the next Nazi Germany than people think. I have done posts about this. I study history. Nobody took Adolf Hitler any more seriously when he was elected than most of you take our new president. And I don’t just mean democrats. I mean that most republicans are overlooking the dangerous aspects of this man just so they can get back in power.

Hitler had a very small core of actual Nazis when he took office. He was just a man with funny hair who squeaked by in an election by promising to make things better, and blaming the problems people were facing on ‘those other people’. It was what Hitler did after the election that made Nazi Germany. It is a slow, step by step process.

There is a very real danger that America will become a totalitarian state run by a petulant dictator with self esteem issues.

What worries me is that the very opposition to the new president might be his road to complete power. If the protests turn violent, this would be an excuse for our new Fuehrer to declare martial law. He can take away our rights under this condition. Maybe he will decide to override the powers of the House and Senate. He has already talked about replacing the military leaders in this country with Generals who agree with his way of thinking. Does everybody  not see how dangerous this is.

This orange buffoon has already shown complete contempt for the laws we live under. He has no use for morals or ethics. His own supporters admitted that he has a ‘list’ of people who stood against him, or disagreed with him, or insulted him. He is petty and malicious, and has a base following of hardcore disciples who are mean-spirited, vicious, and angry. And they believe the fake news, not the real news. These are people who can ignore any truth put forth by scientists because it doesn’t fit their religious views, and overlook any religious  stricture that doesn’t allow them to express their hatred for others.

If you don’t see the danger, you haven’t been studying history. The world has been turned upside down, and the stagnant malignancy at the bottom of the swamp has boiled up to the top. I’m not saying that all republicans are like this, but they let their party be hijacked by people like this, and then refused to stand against it or abandon that party.

I have no weapon to fight this growing darkness but my humor and my art. But if all I can do is throw humor at tRump, then I am going to throw that shit like a pissed-off monkey. If there are ever concentration camps built in this country, I will probably end up in one, all joking aside. I send obnoxious tweets right to the buffoon in question. Because I intend to come down on the right side of history.

If I am wrong, and he just ends up being the worst president ever, then we can all live with that. It doesn’t change the fact that we let the worst parts of the American psyche, the worst segments of the American people, take us closer to the precipice than is acceptable. The people who blame everyone but themselves for all their problems, the people who despise others for somehow taking their share of what they feel they are owed, the people who hate and fear others who are different than them. These people are now the wide base of our national political structure.

If you aren’t afraid, you should be.

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So you elected an asshole: A survival guide… part 15…

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I think the best way to make it through the next four years of the tRump presidency is to lock yourself away in a comfy room somewhere, and read my blog… all of it… from the very beginning.

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So you elected an asshole: A survival guide… part 14…

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I honestly don’t have any good Trump-era survival tips for my female readers. I wish I did… I have two daughters… and a wife… and a mom. Despite Trump’s claims that he promotes women in his companies and treats them fairly, it seems fairly obvious that he is a sexist jerk. And I would be willing to bet that a large percentage of his male supporters, coworkers and hand-picked staff and cabinet, are all the kinds of guys who think women should work in porn or at Hooters, or maybe in the office… to bring them coffee and type stuff… if they aren’t the decent kind of women who are home, pregnant and cooking dinner.

 

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