DANGEROUS TIMES
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Sept. 17, 2021

9/17/2021

9 Comments

 

WE'RE BACK.
AND WISH WE WEREN'T

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"I'VE BEEN THINKING about you," I said. “Where have you been?”
   “Here and there and nowhere,” growled the opossum, who was my one-time writing partner.
   Mr. O, as I call him, was balanced on the top edge of our backyard wooden fence, a precarious perch that was not necessarily his first choice of a resting spot.
   In fact, he had just been pursued across the backyard and up the fence by none other than me. I’d been on my final backyard visit for the evening and, sensing an unknown creature, given chase.
   So here he was, caught in the glare of LED flashlight held by The Grouchy One, frozen in silhouette, either out of habit or lack of alternatives, staring straight ahead.

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IT WAS OUR first “meeting” since Joe Biden won the presidency last November, a miracle that made unnecessary further publication of the “Tracking Trump” blog, on which we had collaborated during some of the country’s darkest years.
   We hadn’t deliberately stopped writing; continuing just seemed beside the point, now that Biden was safely on his way to the White House, not that our blog had anything to do with that.
   Strangely, Mr. O and I never even said goodbye. The opossum seemed just to fade into outdoors as mysteriously as he had appeared one day in our backyard; and later, we’d discovered a shared interest in politics.
    And until now, we had made no attempt to stay in touch. No cards – actually, I was the only one with a known street address at the home in Newport, R.I., I share with my Humans,  The Nice One and The Grouchy One – but neither of us had lifted a claw to send an email or text.
   I’d often wondered why we ignored each other after such an intense collaboration in which we, like so many Americans and even those in other countries, had tried to fathom how a fiend like Donald Trump had ascended to the most powerful office in the world, then promptly set about tearing apart his country’s sacred institutions and customs.
   Perhaps our professional relationship, forged not in friendship, but out of desperation and fear, had been so consuming that when it seemed like the danger had passed, the mere sight of each other brought back the terror of those awful times.

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BUT THE NIGHTMARE, as you know as well as we do, never ended; in fact, it’s even darker and more terrifying.
   More than 74 million people voted for Trump, just 7 million less than the 81 million for Biden, despite four awful years in which Trump had conclusively proven that he was unfit to lead, and, indeed, was more destructive to our democracy than any foreign enemy.
   Nearly half of our fellow citizens embraced Trump; his influence in 2021 seems deeper and more destructive than when he took office in 2017, having transformed the GOP into something that resembles a terrorist organization more than a normal political party.
   Republicans apologized, ignored, lied about and sometimes supported the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol that nearly cost Trump’s own vice president, as well as GOP and other lawmakers, their lives. Republican-dominated state houses since the election have passed laws to weaken voting rights and vote-counting procedures, which had allowed the country to overcome Trump’s Big Lie that he’d won.

SO, REPUBLICANS HAVE emerged as a homicidal force that extended the Covid 19 pandemic not just within their own states, but placed the entire nation at risk by fighting vaccination and mask-wearing steps that can the spread of virus variants.
   Just two states, Texas and Florida, now account for one-third of all daily Covid deaths in the country, as their governors, Greg Abbott, in Texas, and Ron DeSantis in Florida, war against their own school districts and communities that have tried to establish safety protocols.
   The nation is averaging 1,969 Covid deaths a day, with Texas accounting for 297 of these, and Florida, 363;according to today's New York Times compilations. And yet there are no Wanted for Murder posters on telephone poles and Post Office bulletin boards for Abbott and DeSantis.
    President Biden (how good this still sounds) today continued to call out both murderous leaders, according to the Washington Post:
  “The governors of Florida and Texas are doing everything they can to undermine the lifesaving requirements that I proposed,” Biden said at the White House.
   The Post noted also that attorneys general in 24 Republican states said they would do everything they could to block Biden's recent moves to promote mask wearing and vaccinations. Essentially, pledging to promote illness and death.

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I WONDERED whether Mr. O’s reappearance in our backyard recently was a coincidence or an acknowledgment that, sadly, our work is not over.
   As we discussed getting the blog going again, Mr. O wouldn’t say why he returned or even if he’d really gone away. But wearily, he agreed that we couldn’t just ignore the peril that threatens the country.
   Whether an aging, but “sweet” dog or an opossum, with a cute face and an ugly tail, should be taken seriously in discussing these matters is a fair question.
   But doing nothing is not an answer.

9 Comments
Henry A link
9/17/2021 05:10:21 pm

Welcome back Phoebe and O! We need you. I hope you're both vaccinated even if you don't wear masks. Or is that one on O. I see? Probably not, but a guy can always hope.

Reply
Brian
9/17/2021 11:04:41 pm

We would wear masks,but haven't found any that fit. Or fit perfectly, so our glasses (which we always take off when our photos are taken) don't fog up. But thanks for the thought.

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Jody McPhillips
9/17/2021 05:47:51 pm

After all this time, nobody seems able to explain just what is at the heart of the GOP embrace of nasty unreason. Lots of theories, all probably partly correct. But it feels like we are missing something obvious. I just can't believe there are as many flaming assholes as it sometimes seems. I know we just see the worst of the worst on social and other media. I do blame media in part for this mess, if it bleeds it leads, etc. The cumulative effect is killing us, though. It feels like we don't like or trust each other any more. And yet in our real lives, we see the same basically decent people we ever did. Something's out of kilter.

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Craig Harris
9/18/2021 08:23:33 am

Fear and anger are primal. They are like fires that are easily stoked. The Liar in Chief provided a steady stream of fuel, and the media was a bellows. Millions of Americans bathed in the heat of anger and do not want to give it up. They are hooked on the opiate of lies, with easy targets like an honest president and science that could save lives and return a semblance of stability.

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Brian
9/18/2021 10:04:54 am

What's not clear to me is why Trump cultists fail to use their own life experiences as a check on his deadly direction.

Jody McPhillips
9/17/2021 05:48:34 pm

And BTW, welcome back, Phoebe and pointy-nose-white-face. You help!

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Brian
9/17/2021 11:07:55 pm

You're so encouraging. If only you didn't write and think better than we do. Thankfully, we're able to fall back on the excuse - heck, it's the truth - that we're just animals.

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Neale
9/18/2021 06:28:11 pm

Welcome back! The cause for Trumpism? I don't discount the evil in DT's heart and that of many of his followers, but the immediate cause is opportunism. They think DT has coat tails. And, in some states, he does.
The real, deep cause that goes way back. The Republicans, who represent the rich, one expects to do nothing to solve the deep problems of the nation. Why should they. The rich are doing well -- in the short to medium term, before the people, the nation, and the planet explode.
But the Democrats are supposed to represent the people. They've done a piss poor job of doing that. I'm talking about Clinton and Obama. Globalization doesn't raise all boats -- it increases overall wealth, but lots of people, I mean a whole lot of people, got left behind. The devil took the hindmost.
We needed massive programs to aid every small town in rural America, every place beyond 50 miles or so of a large enough city, where the economic action has been for the past 30 years, to keep the rot from settling in. More important, to keep hope from vanishing.
Where were the Demos when Wal-Mart was destroying retail of every Main Street in small town America? Where, when a zillion McDonald's and Burger Kings replaced local restaurants and hired workers at shit wages? Where, when the unions were hopelessly battling the closing of manufacturing which corporate America was relocating to Mexico and China?
Oh but the GDP was rising! Trade is good and there are so many winners (who vote for us), especially in the big cities. The Demos forgot there were a lot of Losers too, and ignored them. Not completely, but mostly.
Yes, the Republicans put up roadblocks. The Supreme Court, for once progressive in the 50s, reverted to its usual role throughout history of social backwardness. A US Constitution, written by God of course in 1789, was increasingly getting out of date.
Those were challenges. But there always are challenges. In the face of challenge Clinton turned right in his second term, and Obama -- granted he did bring in a convoluted healthcare plan for some of the poor -- seemed to focus on image and foreign adventures.
The hopeless turned to Trump. Evil genius that he is, he welcomed them. They became his people. He loved them -- even after they tore down the capitol. (Well, almost.)
So now we're in a pickle. Biden knows that and is trying to bring in some big programs, hampered by having only a razor thin majority and people like Manchin.
The outlook is bleak. But don't give up the fight! What good will giving up do?

Reply
Brian
9/18/2021 07:58:23 pm

Neale, No fair out-thinking, out-analyzing and out-writing the animals. It's been a long, hot, summer of drought, wildfires, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, and now we are faced with what from our readers? Going deep and smart. Well, somebody has to. Thanks, really, for doing what you do so well.

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    A "sweet dog" and a smart opossum consider a nation at risk.

    The writers

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    PHOEBE, a "sweet dog" who came to Rhode Island in 2010 as a stray puppy from Missouri, was a political agnostic until Trump's catastrophic election. She tracked his presidency in a blog, which she decided to resurrect it this year  when it became obvious that Republicans are committed to Trump's destructive policies
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    MR. O, an opossum, showed up in Phoebe's backyard somewhat mysteriously. He turned out to have genuine insight into political matters, and he agreed to assume co-author duties of the blog after Phoebe's previous writing partner, Cat, a cat, died.
    Picture
    CAT

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