THE WORLD HAS LOVED, HATED AND ENVIED THE U.S. NOW, FOR THE FIRST TIME, WE PITY IT
By: Fintan O’Toole
Over more than two centuries, the United States has stirred a very wide range of feelings in the rest of the world: love and hatred, fear and hope, envy and contempt, awe and anger. But there is one emotion that has never been directed towards the US until now: pity.
However bad things are for most other rich democracies, it is hard not to feel sorry for Americans. Most of them did not vote for Donald Trump in 2016. Yet they are locked down with a malignant narcissist who, instead of protecting his people from Covid-19, has amplified its lethality. The country Trump promised to make great again has never in its history seemed so pitiful.
Will American prestige ever recover from this shameful episode? The US went into the coronavirus crisis with immense advantages: precious weeks of warning about what was coming, the world’s best concentration of medical and scientific expertise, effectively limitless financial resources, a military complex with stunning logistical capacity and most of the world’s leading technology corporations. Yet it managed to make itself the global epicentre of the pandemic.
As the American writer George Packer puts it in the current edition of the Atlantic, “The United States reacted … like Pakistan or Belarus – like a country with shoddy infrastructure and a dysfunctional government whose leaders were too corrupt or stupid to head off mass suffering.”
It is one thing to be powerless in the face of a natural disaster, quite another to watch vast power being squandered in real time – wilfully, malevolently, vindictively. It is one thing for governments to fail (as, in one degree or another, most governments did), quite another to watch a ruler and his supporters actively spread a deadly virus. Trump, his party, and Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News became vectors of the pestilence.
The grotesque spectacle of the president openly inciting people (some of them armed) to take to the streets to oppose the restrictions that save lives is the manifestation of a political death wish. What are supposed to be daily briefings on the crisis,
demonstrative of national unity in the face of a shared challenge, have been used by Trump merely to sow confusion and division. They provide a recurring horror show in which all the neuroses that haunt the American subconscious dance naked on live TV.
If the plague is a test, its ruling political nexus ensured that the US would fail it at a terrible cost in human lives. In the process, the idea of the US as the world’s leading nation – an idea that has shaped the past century – has all but evaporated.
Other than the Trump impersonator Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, who is now looking to the US as the exemplar of anything other than what not to do? How many people in Düsseldorf or Dublin are wishing they lived in Detroit or Dallas?
It is hard to remember now but, even in 2017, when Trump took office, the conventional wisdom in the US was that the Republican Party and the broader framework of US political institutions would prevent him from doing too much damage. This was always a delusion, but the pandemic has exposed it in the most savage ways.
Abject surrender
What used to be called mainstream conservatism has not absorbed Trump – he has absorbed it. Almost the entire right-wing half of American politics has surrendered abjectly to him. It has sacrificed on the altar of wanton stupidity the most basic ideas of responsibility, care and even safety.
Thus, even at the very end of March, 15 Republican governors had failed to order people to stay at home or to close non-essential businesses. In Alabama, for example, it was not until April 3 that governor Kay Ivey finally issued a stay-at-home order.
In Florida, the state with the highest concentration of elderly people with underlying conditions, governor Ron DeSantis, a Trump mini-me, kept the beach resorts open to students travelling from all over the US for spring break parties. Even on April 1, when he issued restrictions, DeSantis exempted religious services and “recreational activities.”
Georgia governor Brian Kemp, when he finally issued a stay-at-home order on April 1, explained: “We didn’t know that [the virus can be spread by people without symptoms] until the last 24 hours.”
This is not mere ignorance – it is deliberate and homicidal stupidity. There is, as the demonstrations this week in US cities have shown, plenty of political mileage in denying the reality of the pandemic. It is fuelled by Fox News and far-right internet sites, and it reaps for these politicians millions of dollars in donations, mostly (in an ugly irony) from older people who are most vulnerable to the coronavirus.
It draws on a concoction of conspiracy theories, hatred of science, paranoia about the “deep state” and religious providentialism (God will protect the good folks) that is now very deeply infused in the mindset of the American right.
Trump embodies and enacts this mindset, but he did not invent it. The US response to the coronavirus crisis has been paralysed by a contradiction that the Republicans have inserted into the heart of US democracy. On the one hand, they want to control all the levers of governmental power. On the other they have created a popular base by playing on the notion that government is innately evil and must not be trusted.
The contradiction was made manifest in two of Trump’s statements on the pandemic: on the one hand that he has “total authority”, and on the other that “I don’t take responsibility at all”. Caught between authoritarian and anarchic impulses, he is incapable of coherence.
Fertile ground
But this is not just Donald Trump. The crisis has shown definitively that Trump’s presidency is not an aberration. It has grown on soil long prepared to receive it. The monstrous blossoming of misrule has structure and purpose and strategy behind it.
There are very powerful interests who demand “freedom” in order to do as they like with the environment, society and the economy. They have infused a very large part of American culture with the belief that “freedom” is literally more important than life. My freedom to own assault weapons trumps your right not to get shot at school. Now, my freedom to go to the barber (“I Need a Haircut” read one banner this week in St. Paul, Minnesota) trumps your need to avoid infection.
Usually when this kind of outlandish idiocy is displaying itself, there is the comforting thought that, if things were really serious, it would all stop. People would sober up. Instead, a large part of the US has hit the bottle even harder.
And the president, his party and their media allies keep supplying the drinks. There has been no moment of truth, no shock of realisation that the antics have to end. No one of any substance on the US right has stepped in to say: get a grip, people are dying here.
That is the mark of how deep the trouble is for the US – it is not just that Trump has treated the crisis merely as a way to feed tribal hatreds but that this behaviour has become normalised. When the freak show is live on TV every evening, and the star is boasting about his ratings, it is not really a freak show any more. For a very large and solid bloc of Americans, it is reality.
And this will get worse before it gets better. Trump has at least eight more months in power. In his inaugural address in 2017, he evoked “American carnage” and promised to make it stop. But now that the real carnage has arrived, he is revelling in it. He is in his element.
As things get worse, he will pump more hatred and falsehood, more death-wish defiance of reason and decency, into the groundwater. If a new administration succeeds him in 2021, it will have to clean up the toxic dump he leaves behind. If he is re-elected, toxicity will have become the lifeblood of American politics.
Either way, it will be a long time before the rest of the world can imagine America being great again.
End.
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The HOBBLEDEHOY 
Get that asshole out NOW!
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Trump must be locked up forever! He’a moron and a danger to the whole world.
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Mr. O’Toole knows not about what he speaks ! Absolute out of touch dribble that we in the states get from our Liberal media daily. After years (decades) of US decline, Trump has revitalized America while at the same time being mis-characterized as a racist, misogynist, xenophobe, etc. Finally we have a president who is looking out for our Country first. Finally we have a president that doesn’t worry about which way the political winds are blowing when he promotes less government regulation, lower taxes to move our economy to the best performance in 5 decades. Finally we have a president who understands how economics works and how and why the Free Enterprise system is the greatest model in the world. Finally, we have a president that is not afraid of the rabid, irrational press OR the Political Establishment in America. Turn off CNN and turn on your mind!
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You should probably take a gander at Treasury stats by year and notice that Trump did not cause some actual economic boom. Economic growth has stayed flat as a function of time since the Obama recovery from the Bush recession in ’07. What Trump did was artificially juice up the stock market (which is not the same thing as the economy). He touts stock growth as a strong economy (it isn’t). The stock market is reactionary and very fickle. Businesses flush with cash from high stocks and buybacks from tax cuts went on hiring sprees that were unsupported by actual economic growth or consumer spending expansion. It was a bubble. No different than the housing bubble, or the dotcom bubble. It was always going to crash and take everyone down with it. He was just hoping to ride it to re-election because far too many people haven’t got a clue how the economy actually works.
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I see. you are from the “Figures don’t lie but liars can figure” crowd. i do agree that our debt is out of control and it is the fault of our Congress (both Republican and Democrat) which doesn’t care about leaving debt to our children. However, Obama did nothing except throw money at some unions in the guise of Shovel Ready jobs … please. Trump triggered our economy by enacting sound policy. He put it back on solid ground and incredible job growth until COVID-19. The fact the we have by design a capitalist economy is what saved Obama, even though he was clueless on how to get it going. Anemic 1 to 2% growth under Obama.
President Trump may offend many with his blunt language and caustic assessment of our biased liberal press, but he has generated solid economic and social policy ( sorry to the pro-aborts )
As for U.S. stock market, i am not worried, it is coming back as well as my retirement accounts. thank you.
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This is the type of people who support Donald Trump. The writer of this article started out with the fact that the majority of the people didn’t vote for him. But over here they will muddy that fact by saying people voted illegally for Clinton and the only voter fraud found was committed by the Republicans. You did not write anything that was opinion or not supported by fact but they will claim you are deep state. People with any piece of sense can see the ball was dropped by our number of cases and our death toll compared to the rest of the world.
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I believe that your mind has been subdued by the malignant cult that is trump followers… Everything in the above article and in the mainstream news about this imbecile you have, in your blind hatreds for anyone nonwhite, is true. Only fox news, the voice of the billionaire class, supports this raging fool. Believe me, as a non American.. This fool is hated by all but the dregs of our society.
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A fantastic economy (if we make abstraction of the subsidy by national debt); nation empowerment (if we see beyond the destruction of the modicum of social safety net); the best time in the nation’s history ( if we don’t count the period of the corona virus being a “democratic hoax” subsequently killing 80k Americans and their economy).
Finally a leader who knows how to lead a country as his own business: leaving it bankrupt after his 4yrs time as a CEO And PRESIDENT, being empowered by the Republican Party and a minority of the electorate who, democratically, were indeed represented by a majority of the electoral college.
A dark time closing the American Century….
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Terry, wake up. The orange cheetah is more certainly to blame for deaths. Your kind are also to blame for ignoring science and facts. Facts are facts, you can’t spin those around. Have some bleach on hand in case you catch the virus!
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For others on this thread, please realize that “Terry R. Sandy” does not represent the majority viewpoint in the U.S. This person represents the insanity, sheer ignorance, fear, and hatred that got Trump elected (barely) by the Electoral College, against the wishes of the majority of American people. And even larger majority of us hates him more than any other living human being right now, but we feel powerless, because our 18th century constitution is being cynically manipulated by amoral, power-obsessed hypocrites like Mitch McConnell and the rest of the Republican Party to retain power for a the minority of us besotted by Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News and the rest of the right-wing propaganda network.
This article speaks the TRUTH. Terry R. Sandy simply regurgitates the lies he has ingested from the propaganda network I referred to. It is indeed a pitiful state of affairs.
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Perhaps since you are so keen on statistics …. Why don’t you check out the liberal (Democrat) affiliations of the major news outlets while you are investigating statistics. Trump could walk on water and they would report that he is a LIAR because he said he could swim!
As for our Electoral College (which he won 304 to 227… overwhelmingly) Take a look at 2 Democrat cities (Los Angeles and New York) Clinton got 2,464,364 votes in LA and 1,969,816 in NY City. LA alone nearly put Clinton over with the popular vote… which is why we have an electoral college (so one concentrated area of Republican or Democrat voters can’t swing an election with unbalanced representation. as you may know, we are a Representative Republic, NOT a democracy).
… and while you are at it, why don’t you go online and register to vote in Democrat controlled Los Angeles. Because you CAN ! Make up an address and give them your email address and away you go! then don’t forget to mail in your ballot for 2020 election. The Democrat party leads the way in the USA in manipulating the voting process. They are working relentlessly to allow someone to vote without any proof of citizenship …. but that just might distort your Utopian view of the way the world should work . Watch, there will be a “push” by our liberal politicians to allow 2020 vote by mail or on-line, so voters will not have to prove they have the right to vote in our National election. Won’t that be fun!
My ancestry is Irish and English, so I have a bond with the Irish and Brits but love my country and am grateful for it. Trump has endured an unbelievable “set up” by our Deep-state ( Democrats in our State Department ) on both manufactured Russia collusion and then his very open and candid Ukraine “conversation” … (for which partisan politicians impeached him for)…. Can you tell me what the offense was worth impeaching? was it asking Ukraine to investigate the kickbacks to Joe Biden’s son? I don’t find that impeachable, I find that commendable! After all, as taxpayers we gave our hard earned tax dollars to that corrupt regime…
You may not have the courage to dig for the news that will expose the depth of the conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election, but it is coming !!
Lastly, for what it is worth, I support Trump’s conservative policies and approach to governing. Not thrilled about his brash style sometimes, but contrary to what you have been fed, he is clear about his intentions and plans for governing. No lies or head-fakes to hide his agenda. No promises like ” If you like your current healthcare plan you can keep it” or ” … your premiums will go down with Obama Care”. He is clearly not a soft-spoken politician who (like Clinton and Obama) honed their wordsmith skills with decades of government jobs, learning how to placate voters with promises they could not keep… No one ever knew where they stood on any issue (except perhaps abortion and proclaiming the evils of fossil fuels). First time in a long time we have a president who hasn’t been suckled all his life at the State or Federal Government teat. We have a president who knows how the Federal Government has restricted our Free Enterprise system with politically correct regulations and over-regulations, ever increasing taxation on the achievers ( middle class and up) in order to increase the size of the welfare state and keep a large portion of our voters just needy enough to vote Democrat, but not give them the power to escape their indenture to the Democrat party which thrives on keeping citizens in need of the Welfare system in the US. Until COVID-19, Trump’s economic policies have lifted millions out of the unemployment lines and back to work!!
ALL TIME high employment in the U.S.!! lowest unemployment in 5 decades!
Bash him and mock him all you want, he has steadied a ship that has been taking on water for decades. My hat’s off to him and I stand by him (funny hair and all)
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Paaaaleeez ! Why don’t you state your facts about what a “liar” and evil person Trump is. He ran on an agenda openly and has worked hard to get it accomplished. That’s honest and straightforward. Why don’t you provide some examples of his evil-doing and lies ? Your cocktail party visceral is a little childish. Is this an open forum for discussion about President Trump? Perhaps we can have an honest discussion about that, but arguing about your feelings, well you win! You hate him. we get that.
and by the way, I do not speak for all America, which is what makes this a great country. We will see who wins in November ! You may have another 4 years of hating ! Drink up!
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Why does everyone assume people outside of the US receive their news from CNN? CNN versus Fox is an Americanism. The rest of the world gets their news from the world news, much of it from conservative sources.
I often read in American news that the economy is going swimmingly, everyone is at work, things are great. Yeah. That’s good, but at the same time the people are about as miserable and vitriolic as has ever been the case and despite Americans wanting about 95% the same things in life, they blame the other side(democrats and Republicans both guilty of this) of ruining the country or of actively seeking to destroy it. Trump is firmly in that catagory and deserves to be ridiculed for it.
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Terry, you are a fucking moron of the highest degree! You are the cult of trumptard poster child, and your days are numbered. November is coming, then its BYEDON2020!!!
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Finally you have a President who doesn’t listen to logic, scientists or professionals. USA is #1 ….. in pandemic deaths and infections. Way to go !!
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Terry R Sandy complains of anaemic GDP growth under Obama, and incredible job growth under Trump.
But a quick look at very easily accessed public information from the Federal Reserve and the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that GDP growth was higher on average in Obama’s second term (reaching 4% in 2015) than it has been under Trump, and also shows annual job growth in Obama’s second term in excess of what it has been under Trump. Same goes for pretty much every economic indicator.
Trump’s supposed “economic miracle” is a con job, just like Trump’s supposed business success is a con job (he’s just an over-leveraged money launderer). If there’s one skill trump has, it’s the art of the con, but as much as there are some easy marks out there like Terry R Sandy, most people with functioning BS detectors can smell his schtick a mile away.
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Best economy in decades? When did you write this comment? January?
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Sounds like someone has turned off your mind.
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Mr. O’Toole is exactly 100% correct. The only out of touch people are the ones who follow trump. trump inherited a good economy from President Obama, trump did not build on that economy, instead putting us into trillions of dollars more debt. How does one look out for the American people when he gives large corporations the tax breaks, money then gives the rest of the country $1200 per person if they qualify per what “he” says.Yes, trump does care how the political wind is blowing and if it is not towards him alone he acts like a five year old bully, whining, and instead of treating all states and all people equally he pulls the necessities of life away from them?
You know nothing about what is going on because you have chosen to keep your eyes wide shut and deliberately remain ignorant to what is going on in this country. trump IS the enemy of America and her people.
How about you turn off Fox entertainment and turn on your mind.
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i can’t help but notice 99% of your comments on Trump’s presidency have to do with his personality, not his accomplishments or agenda or approach to fixing things. maybe take a valiium or two … but please don’t mix with adult beverage ..
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You are just another shining example of the stupidity we are being subjected to on a daily basis. I say fuck trump and everything about him and his supporters
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you are delusional. 61000 dead people, the president suggests injecting disinfectant and you’re still a trump fan. turn off fox (supposed) news & you may realize that you are a brainwashed death cult member who has been manipulated to ignore reason and the truth.
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oh for pity’sake,.
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What are you smoking ?
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Dear Lord save us from those that have drunk the KoolAid. Mr. O’Toole is spot on and now that Trump has pillaged the Country hopefully we’ll see the backside of him in January as the door hits him in the ass. That is if he doesn’t kill us all first
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Wow. What world are you living in? You must either have good medication or you’re from a mirror universe
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Actually he’s 100% on target, and your comment proves it. There are none so blind as those who will not see. What he understands is how to play you for all you’re worth, and leave you in the gutter with the rest of his endeavors. Feel free to keep your head stuck in the sand, enjoy the view.
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Terry Sandy, never ever in my life has a president made such errors every step he takes to every ignorant text he sends.
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What alternate universe are you living in? He is not looking out for our country first. We have a president who denies science and shuts down the experts. There is no doubt that thousands of lives have been lost due to his negligence. We have a president who incites hatred and violence based at a whim. We have a president who manipulates and encourages the stupidity of the gullible masses who buy into the most ridiculous conspiracy theories and who first hand whatever Rush Limbaugh or Fox news says. He is grinding us into to dust.
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Actually rump inherited a fabulous economy from Barack….and then succeeded in destroying the Economy AND the Capital Building….and killing 5 Americans during his moronic narcissistic attempt to overthrow our newly Elected President, Joe Biden….Rump was a useless man who was looking for fame, NOT looking to serve the American PEOPLE!
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I am in favor of TRUMP as the President of the United States. I can’t think of anyone, that can deal with the stresses he has endured SINCE DAY1!
You have the Democrats trying to go against every effort he is involved in. They are looking for votes at no cost to the economy, society or the American future.
Trump has more experience in running a business, which is very much like running a country in a macro sense. He is by far, the most talented when it comes to negotiations than any other Presidential candidate or elected President.
We need him to bring back America into prominence it currently lacks. Anyone opposing this mans effort, has definitely not been in a position of authority.
Trump is a strong leader that is getting many things done, and this is the essence of the hate that’s created by the media, and those who dint appreciate a great leader.
Trump will be re-elected in 2020, and the economic and political forecast will be affected in the beginning, but long term, he will steer this country back into prominence!
Lastly, I salute this man for his endurance. I wish we can all be that way!
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Yet another Trumpist who brags of Trump getting so much done, without mentioning any actual achievements. There’s a reason for that. and that’s that he’s achieved very, very little.
The economy has continued the upward trajectory set under Obama, with slightly lower growth in stock prices, GDP and employment, but in the same ballpark.
Other than that Trump has damaged America’s standing in the world; undermined America’s institutions, especially the judiciary, by replacing competent, independent people in government with unqualified bootlickers and donors; massively increased levels of corruption, and decreased levels of oversight; and trashed the budget by giving an unfunded tax cut to those who need it least. In the process, he’s wiped his ass with the Constitution, and the consitutionalists of the GOP have meekly accepted that as a price of getting their preferred nominees for judgeships.
Trump doesn’t have endurance, or vision. His only enthusiasm is to use his power to punish those who point out that the Emperor is naked.
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Oh brother …. give the man credit that he is due !!! Until Covid-19 Trump’s policies created the highest level of employment in the USA EVER !!!!! Until Covid-19 Trump’s economic policies ( lowering the Corporate Tax rate from 39 % to low 20’s % and lowering individual tax rates for the majority of taxpayers also….created the lowest unemployment numbers for minorities in 50 years. did Obama do that in his 8 years? Obama lamented that outsourcing to CHINA was the way it is now…. Trump administration has been building empowerment zones in the inner cities that are being devastated by Democratic governing. Trump has brought back manufacturing jobs to the U.S. Obama administration saw jobs leaving the US in record numbers. Try being honest with yourself instead of just being a Trump-hater. We get it. You don’t like his brazen personality. You can’t believe he actually loves America and is Pro-Life !!! yes, he realizes that Abortion is murder … can you admit to that ? TRUMP 2020 !!!!!
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Trump is the worst president in the history of the United States. It will take at least 5 years to undo his incompetence and treasonous actions. Brazen personality? Hardly. He is essentially a coward. Pro-Life? Absurd. – THE HOBBLEDEHOY
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Dude ! you asked for evidence of his policies on economic reform that has lead to our economic recovery and I list the 3 ( Corporate Tax rate reduction, Individual Tax rate reduction and personally working to bring outsourced manufacturing jobs back to the USA.
What, pray tell, did President Obama due to get the economy going ???
ps.. Calling Trump names does not count as a legitimate response.
GIVE me (please) the one or two policies that Obama Administration instituted. Adding more people to the Welfare roles does not count, by the way. Remember he bragged about that ? More people on welfare during his terms that ever before. Great legacy. That’s the Democrat Party for you… Keep US citizens tied to the Federal teat so they will vote Democrat for as long as they are getting a check ….
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You said “teat.”
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Many of us are working as hard as we can, to rid ourselves of this ignorant, science-denying fool.
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Hmmm does science say that a fetus has a heartbeat at 21 days? Trump agrees.
Does science say that a fetus is viable ( can survive ) in the second trimester?
Who’s the science denier ?????
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Yes! trump go home!
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You don’t know what in the world you’re talking about.
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Actually – he nailed it.
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No he missed by a mile, and you too.
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This is spot-on. Trump is an outgrowth of accumulated stupidity and greed. I’m watching the collapse of an experiment in capitalism and representative democracy that has lasted less than 250 years. Pity, laugh, satirize, whatever–just keep it coming. All the world should keep voicing its utter contempt for Donald Trump and everyone who stands with him. (But people in Dublin might really like Seattle.)
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What a bunch of drivel..
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Actually, he is spot on.
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Who cares what they think. Where do they get to talk about my country!
Donald Trump did more got my country than 10 pass presindent s.
Look in your own back yards! Who sold out to the English for years?
I bet you still don’t know how bad you smell you rat bastards.
Let me know how good your government is?
I’m Irish and my family left Ireland because of how well you treated the people!
So Irish news eat shit and die!
4 more year’s and you can’t stop it with your so-called news
Fuc. You all
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Stfu Art Taylor, signed America
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Art, being ignorant is not a good luck. You are ignorant. Brainwashed. A sheep of the cult of trumptard. You have been had by a moronic conman, and now you just cant bring yourself to admit. I know it must hurt. No one likes to admit they have been conned. That they where stupid. It will all be over soon for the whole WT lot of you. You can go back into your trailer. BYEDON2020!! You are welcome
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Art taylor, you obviously haven’t seen the news lately or have not heard trump say he though using disinfectant might be a good cure for the virus. Any stupid person, (which includes you) would know the man is not sane. You obviously haven’t seen or heard trump called the virus a hoax why back in January when he actually was informed of the day he called it a hoax. Perhaps in order for you to understand the ramifications of this virus you should get and leave us.
Oh, and let’s not forget trump didn’t make the economy great, he only inherited from Obama. Any half wit would already know a sitting president inherits the last fiscal year from the previous economy. Obama left an amazing one and trump simply screwed it up. Now he’ll have to start anew and as usual he will bankrupt America.
But that is okay, you believe the trash he talks and people will see you are as unbalanced as he is.
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This is absolutely the finest characterization of Trump and the United States at this point in time I have read anywhere, As a US citizen and a scientist I have found the degradation of my country enlightening in the most frightful way imaginable.
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I feel the same way!
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Ireland 5Mil population 1400 deaths corona
US 300Mil population
55000 deaths corona
Did Trump cause lrelands rate to equal or be greater than the US
Pure blarney
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Hey Sammy,
It’s less than two weeks later and Ireland has 3 more deaths.
The US has 21,000 more deaths.
The US death rate per million will surpass Ireland’s in a few days.
Yes, Trump’s incompetence is entirely to blame.
No blarney, boyo!
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I say focus on getting those 6 counties up north back from the English that my grandfather busted his ass and shed his blood to keep.. Pity us for 911 when we watched our friends incinerate. This isn’t a surprise. We’re all destroying everything not just merica.
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Most of us walk around dreading another 4 years of Trump.For those of us that don’t pray,I will make one exception,I pray Trump is defeated in November so that we can MakeAmerica Great Again
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This is a devastating and really written piece by the always brilliant Fintan O Toole.
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It is deeply shaming just how accurate this is. My heart hurts for my country and what we have become. I have no illusions about America. We have made some monumental mistakes on the world stage. We likely will again. We’re human. We’ve been blessed with much for a long time and people here got complacent, assuming that the mere “greatness” would protect itself. People with plans and patience crept in and directed that apathy toward fear that they could easily manipulate and bam. Here we are. This is a living nightmare for so many of us. It has been eye opening about how much had been swept under the rug instead of actually taken care of. We knew there were issues but we didn’t ever think they were so many or that they ran so deep. We have the political fight of our lives ahead of us and unfortunately the greatest weapon at our disposal seems in short supply. Compassion. Both sides get further divided and heated and play on fears. It’s a real proper mess here and no mistake.
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Coming from the side of the pond where Trump lives, I see what this piece points out, day after day. I have never seen such a mentally ill dullard as he is, in my lifetime. I’ve lived a long time, through many presidents. The saddest part was having to open my eyes as to just how impotent the rest of the government has been in trying to get out this obviously unqualified monster who squats in the White House. There is no defense for this moron. None. His base has limited vision and there’s no changing them. Everyday is worse and worse. Now, apparently we wait for elections. I’m going to go grab some whiskey and Clorox chaser now.
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Thank you Mr. President forgetting us out of a situation that nobody in America or around the world had any control over your proveing again your leadership even with the obstacles as pelosi and her crew👌👌
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What situation did he get us out of that no one had control over? The virus? Because literally everyone else in the world not only flattened their curves but reversed them. Our cases are still going up. And accelerating. So no… he didn’t get us out of it. He has also given confused messaging, zero solid advice. The ones that got us out of this were the CDC, frontline Doctors and nurses, and State governors who shut things down to stop the unchecked spread while Trump refused to take responsibility.
You also do realize that The House and The Senate are Constitutionally bound to act as obstacles to a President, right?
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That’s rich commentary coming from a country where people killed and bombed and tortured each other for years over what …religion? While the leaders only egged them on.
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Fertile ground indeed. Just remember the real foundation of the great United States of America – an economy firmly planted on the backs of slaves. A majority of those who signed the Constitution were slavers. Washington and Jefferson, those pillars of freedom and equality, were lifelong slavers. There’s reality for you. After the Civil War, African Americans have continued to suffer greatly; they have been treated unfairly on many levels and this continues in some form. This crime with no name, (perhaps best described as extreme racism) has effectively cursed the United States and has affected all levels of society. So no wonder the monstrous trump has emerged. It’s only a logical outcome.
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TRUMP is the most Dangerous Man in America today.
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I was born and raised in the US, and, unfortunately, i dwell here now. Trump is exactly the kind of Citizen Capet or Nicholas Romanov figure that a social order belches up as its figurehead before it collapses in a mass revolutionary upheaval. I’m surprised that major nationwide anti-Trump riots haven’t taken place yet. Maybe this will take place when the Covid 19 social distancing measures are relaxed or collapse; the Trump-chumps demanding this may regret having done so when the accelerating irredeemable qualities of what passes for life in the United States finally explode and consume them and their repugnant social order.
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This is too much personality politics. The current President of the Electoral College merely makes visible to privileged US Americans the toxicity that is well known to Natives and to most of the rest of the world.
The genocidal toxicity of Washington when he ordered: “Lay waste all the settlements around.” The white supremacist toxicity that annexed Hawai’i. The misogynistic, kleptocratic toxicity of a long series of presidents who have supported the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The aggressive militaristic toxicity of Bush and Clinton in destroying Iraq’s drinking-water treatment systems. The racist neocolonial toxicity of Obama and Clinton in destroying Libya and provoking civil war in Yemen.
I’ve never met anybody who hated the US. We only wish the people of the US every success in finding a new path to peaceful, respectful relations with your own oppressed peoples and with the other peoples of the world. This is unlikely to be achieved merely by replacing the man in the White House. It probably requires a new constitution. Best of luck!
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Isn’t it interesting, Niall, that when nations are in need the USA is first to respond with assistance?
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Well, Terry, that used to be the case, when America was great.
Now, it’s an inward-looking basket case, with a President who pulled pandemic readiness workers from dozens of countries, including China, in 2018 to save a few bucks, wants to defund the World Health Organisation in the midst of a pandemic (that he would have had better and earlier intel on had he not made the prior error), defund NATO, tear up trade deals, and reduce foreign aid generally.
When countries are in need, these days they turn to China, not the USA.
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Get the fuck outta here with your ‘Clinton this and that’ bullshit in a surgical feconsyruction of what’s wrong with the entirety of Conservatism.
You’re not making a point, you’re just making an embarrassment of yourself.
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I live in California and thank God I’m in a state with sense. Thank you for this keen insight and truthful assessment. I can’t sleep at night worrying how this manic will kill more and more Americans. Please pray for us.
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noticed my earlier reply to your nonsense was not published.
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Can someone tell me how to get out? I never thought I would want to leave the country I was born in. But I sure wouldn’t mind having a leader who actually knew what it meant to lead.
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It’s nice to know that some people are aware of how terrified and powerless we feel. Not only has he been destroying our country, endangering our citizens, and denying legal, tax-paying immigrants the stimulus, he’s been destroying our international relations for years. Despite so many broken precedents of behavior and historic scandals, he is still, for some reason, in office. And every day, he says or does something that proves I can, indeed, be more mortified than the day before. It is a sad example of hubris and negligence, on our part, as voters. This is what happens when we do not pay attention. This is what happens when we do not take our democracy seriously. This is what happens when we underestimate the harm one very broken man can do.
I hope I’m lucky enough to live through this. And I hope I’m lucky enough to die an ex-patriot on the shores of another country that values healthy, happy, and equal qualities of life over the bottom line.
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On the bright side, and this is reall cruel, those who follow Trump’s edicts (eat hydroxychloroquine, shoot up bleach or whatever toilet disinfectant you happen to have, etc.) will die. And those who refuse to isolate, have a much higher risk of dying.
I say, good.
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As Americans who actually love our country and hate what Trump has and is doing to it, we can only hope that most of the rest of the world realizes that short of civil war, we have no control over this narcissistic man-child because he controls the Senate (they are all firmly affixed to his posterior) and many of the courts. Many of his base are easily prone to violence and can be easily provoked. We worry that Trump will manipulate them into riots if he loses the election. So as you can see, it’s quite a hot mess we have in America, thanks to Donald Jim Jones Trump. He is probably the greatest conman that ever lived. And his base are his marks.
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The man stood in in front of the ENTIRE WORLD and pontificated the virtues of injecting disinfectants into the human body. How perhaps the lungs can go for a good lysol cleaning. He is a moron. And ALL of you who still support him are complicit, cultists. And morons. As for the short sighted argument regarding the economy, it was achieved much like his short term business successes. The planless plan is one of scorched earth, short term, instant gratification thinking. And they ALL crashed and burned to the tune of 5 BANKRUPTCIES. You have witnessed an economy built with no foundation, zero. It was all magical speculation, mostly the result of treasonous actions to cull oversight, with an absolute blind eye to the planet’s wellbeing, or anyone who lives on it. But its almost over. The curtain has been pulled back, and the great and powerful Oz is on full display.. a carpetbagger and conman. A total loser. A pathetic excuse for a man. Vote.. no matter what, vote… BYEDON2020
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Well Mr. Terry Sandy, you have drunk the Kool-Aid from Fox “News” Unfortunately they have turned real news into an ongoing opinion cycle. That Trump finds his “Great/Wonderful/Ideas” that end up in the real news, and that need to be corrected or pulled back soon after.
Trump has not made America Great Again by any stretch, but has made the US much less. As our people die he is looking at ratings. What does that say of him?
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The man is successfully running the country into the ground as he did with numerous business’s.
The Haigue should look into his handling of Covid-19.
Vote Biden. Republicans have shown their ugly colors
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Dude, take a walk or get into yoga or something .. The majority of your responses are just name calling aimed at Trump or myself or those that don’t agree with your views…. Your comments about him espousing drinking Lysol is what you get when you listen to the liberal news outlets who edit and snipet his interviews. Talk about a closed mind? I wonder … is it possible he was just thinking outside the box? Don’t we treat cancer by bombarding cells with Chemotherapy and Radioactivty? Both of these are toxic to our body aren’t they?
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another clueless brainwashed apologist
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On average the US economy has recovered nicely since the 2008 Great Recession thanks to Obama mainly, and continuing into the Trump era. But in reality the USA is two countries … (1) there is the top 10% (about 35 million people) who have progressed exceptionally well for this time and (2) the bottom 90% who have simply continued to struggle on, until the Covid-19 crisis which is being catastrophic. Trump was elected because the political elite in both parties have ignored the bottom 90% for a very long time … certainly for the last 25 years, and maybe as long as 40 years. Trump talked the talk with the help of a number of media-savvy supporters … but with little substance … rather like his business history. Sadly, much of the top 10% want to retain the status quo, and will probably continue to support Trump no matter what it does for the country as a whole, and especially the bottom 90% rest of the country. There is good reason to pity the USA … that is the bottom 90% who are the real America. This community of people still have huge potential if there is good political leadership. PeterB #TVM
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Americans are not stupid (although trumpers do come close) so we know all about what trump is, and what he is doing, and what he has done. I have not seen a better written statement than the one below from Peter Wehner, The Atlantic March 13, 2020. (not the complete article, but enough!)
“Taken together, this is a massive failure in leadership that stems from a massive defect in character. Trump is such a habitual liar that he is incapable of being honest, even when being honest would serve his interests. He is so impulsive, shortsighted, and undisciplined that he is unable to plan or even think beyond the moment. He is such a divisive and polarizing figure that he long ago lost the ability to unite the nation under any circumstances and for any cause. And he is so narcissistic and un-reflective that he is completely incapable of learning from his mistakes. The president’s disordered personality makes him as ill-equipped to deal with a crisis as any president has ever been. With few exceptions, what Trump has said is not just useless; it is downright injurious.”
“It has taken a good deal longer than it should have, but Americans have now seen the con man behind the curtain. The president, enraged for having been unmasked, will become more desperate, more embittered, more unhinged. He knows nothing will be the same. His administration may stagger on, but it will be only a hollow shell. The Trump presidency is over.”
Copied from:
Peter Wehner
Contributing writer at The Atlantic and senior fellow at EPPC “The Trump Predency is over”
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Well said. There may be one person of substance: the governor of California, Gavin Newsom. He has been a voice of reason amongst the crazies. Given time we will see how he responds to the crisis as the rate of infection decreases as well as the death rate. I have no illusions about the ‘United’ States. It is broken and unity seems like a dream from another age. I used to be an optimist. Now I’m left lost amongst the detritus.
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At terry r. sandy…you showed absolutely no proof to back up your comments about trump. Not one single fact. However Obama did leave trump a legacy of a great economy and there is absolute proof he did. Yet, instead of saying he would carry on that legacy, trump said it was his which is a lie. The stats even show that so how can anyone tell another lies and say the economy is all trump. IT IS NOT!!!! I don’t know if you were directing your BS lies to me, however I am neither a democrat or republican and I have voted for both on occasion. I didn’t vote for trump because I knew what he was like as far back as 1979 when he took his loan from a Russia bank, one that was said to be owned by the Russian mob. Don’t believe, fine, remain ignorant but he actually did and there was talk all around America at the time. Your support of his lies just goes to show another person who simply wishes to remain ignorant. As for his not caring about which way the political wind blows…it’s only because he only care about himself and what monies he can put in his pockets.
Don’t believe it? Then show cold hard facts it’s not true. I will keep mine until you show yours. But you won’t, you simply don’t have any that can be validated. However, I have yet to see any trump supporter come with facts or they come up with nothing because there aren’t any to support all that trump has done. Did he build? No, not with legal monies. He took from the military retirement plans which is against the law. He was going to hold aid money back from Ukraine….which is also against the law. He asked another country’s leader to spy on an American citizen, which is an act of treason. It was ALL proven he did this things. Yet the republican congress enabled him to get away with it and more. You don’t believe those things then you had better come up with something other than trump yelling he was innocent…Mr. Mueller has already said he found NO evidence that even suggested trump was innocent. OH….and it is not any conspiracy theory. You trump cult member just can prove he hasn’t broken the law and committed treason. Go for it..but you won’t.
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Just one question regarding Obama’s great approach to fixing the economy after the 2009 crash…. What economic policy did he enact that turned everything around ?
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I’m pretty sure you have drug’s you’re not sharing with others.
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As an American, I am fearful, angry, embarrassed, and utterly flabbergasted by the number of sanctimonious pricks running this country. The ignorance and stupidity of our leaders…the focus on one’s own ratings and not on the country…the lying…the deceit…and the desire to cover up or blame failures on others. Are you all accepting American asylum seekers? I have HR and administration skills.
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Does anyone else wonder whether “Terry R Sandy” is a real American Citizen, or whether perhaps he/she is one of Putin’s puppet masters? His/her dogged persistence in responding to every post he/she disagrees with borders on either paranoid obsession or political meddling to my mind. Either way, I find his comments to be full of arrogant baloney.
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I am sooooooooo glad and happy to see we ALL agree this monster is not capable of being our leader. Our poor poor country is in desperate need of a real leader. Trump in much much much worse than Adolf Hitler ever was. He is a monster and a completely clueless on how to run our county. Now he is telling Michigan citizens they are good people for walking into a state building with GUNS strapped to their back revolting against state government for telling people they must stay home to help with fighting the virus. What kind of a president does this shit!!!!!! No one ever. No president ever would pull this shit. Yet Trump dismantles an agency that Obama created that would have warned us in December about Covid 19. Yet Trump blames everyone else. Sad sad sad sad sad………millions and millions of idiots out there will still vote for this clueless dictator piece of shit wana be and they will vote for him. America and all Americans……..please think hard about our children and their futures AND PLEASE do not vote for this loser Donald Trump. Our president has FAILED us!!!!!!!!
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Really? Covid19 is Trumps fault ? You need to get out more..,
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Now that’s an odd response if ever I saw one. No, obviously nobody thinks Covid is Trump’s fault.
What we DO think is that he scuppered The Centers for Disease Control, (the only U.S. agency whose principal rôle was to predict pandemics), thus guaranteeing a far worse outcome than if he had continued to fund the agency. You must have read this at the time:
“The Trump administration decided to end a $200m early warning programme designed to alert it to potential pandemics just three months before it is believed Covid-19 began infecting people in China….” (The Guardian)
That was criminally irresponsible, whether Trump knew of Covid or not. Do your homework before writing silly replies. You’re letting the side down.
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Really ????? Too much CNN news?
Trump tried to get to the truth of the origins of Covid 19 which the WHO covered up for the Chinese govt. try to at least be intellectually honest dispite your contempt for Trump.
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I understand that somethings about the economy (did ) look roaring, but if you poll the folks who are not affluent with good pensions, health care plans and the like, the folks who clean houses, work in back kitchens, clear the garbage etc, you will find that this economy was not their friend. I am affluent but I care about a good overall economy. I already have enough stock and savings, iNo need to give me more of a break. As for it being Trump’s doing, did you notice that he rode on the sails of a recovery from Bushes recession caused by the speculators who benefit from his tax break, .While the afore mentioned workers lost their houses.
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Rump actually followed Barak O’Bama into the White House….rump was a fat reality show host, who loves talking, but actually had few facts at his disposal and and rump had a long history of non tax paying and scamming people, attempting rape and stealing money from his own charity…scams charities….
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Mr. O’Toole has so accurately and eloquently expressed the opinions of my husband and myself. I fear for our country and people.
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This piece pierced my heart to read. Like a letter sent to a shipwrecked sailor far from home. Because it is the most accurate and well-written summary of my everyday subjective experience. As a woman who has chosen a rural lifestyle, as a means to create peace through distance, I also find myself deep in the bowels of a painfully red county. I find myself living in a place which feels like the home I loved deeply, chose happily, and nestled easily into six years ago, but which I recognize neither in ideals, nor in the rhetoric flung around me like poo in a gorilla mosh pit today. In a reality that feels watery. Alien. Grim. Dystopian. And the pain intensifies tenfold to find myself not only a cultural observer, but an observational, outside-the-glass member of my own family, as they go down giddily with this ship of madness. It’s the most horrific thing I’ve ever witnessed. And I have a deep sense of dread that it will, in fact, get worlds worse before it gets better. And I don’t even like to imagine what that looks like. It turns my stomach with dread, honestly. If you pray, then please pray hard for the people like me. We’re mired here. And struggling hard to keep our heads above water in what’s gone from a lake to a cesspool, and in no time flat at that. We’re reeling. We’re not okay.
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