Once upon a time (okay, it was just a few days ago), a comment appeared on one of my posts. I’m always pleased by comments, relishing both the input and the opportunity to provide meaningful output. But in this case, things went a bit deep…
The commenter shared this, quoting a line in my post concerning America’s current reputation:
“We’re now just a terrible sitcom that should have been cancelled years ago.”
You are more correct than you think. I am an outsider. For the past few months, I’ve been following news from your country to cheer myself up…when I recounted what I learnt about your country and your CiC to my family at the dinner table, we laughed until we choked on our food – you guys helped us bond as family.
Lately, I stopped following the news because (I am not exaggerating or making this up), I am getting terrible dreams, and wake up anxious. And this is beyond my usual anxiety that comes from living where I do. So, it is really a sitcom that needs to be cancelled.
I initially meant to provide a quasi-comforting response, but then one of my muses took over and this happened:
I’m glad you liked that line, as I was mildly proud of it.
I fully understand the terrible dreams and anxiety. They are with me continually these days, constant stabs at what we once were.
It’s a wretched sensation, being in this country right now. In a span of just a few years, a renegade man (who does NOT represent the typical American) and a political party that confoundingly worships said renegade (with an ignorant and hypocritical fervor I have never seen in my long years) have managed to severely harm, if not outright destroy, most everything good that America used to represent. The country is upside down, with lies replacing truth, justice maimed by snickering and vengeful third-graders, governmental checks and balances shattered by incompetency and dark allegiance, and decency now a low-pulse whale on a beleaguered beach, next to a tattered copy of our Constitution.
All because Trump wants to Make America Hate Again, and his legion of supplicants who are wetting themselves with the opportunity to rise up and destroy all that is good, raising high the Trumpian mantra of Divide and Conquer. It’s the legion that troubles me more than yet another soulless, trust-fund brat who is so self-consumed that he doesn’t know compassion from a hole in the ground. That legion is the true cancer in the Body Politic, and it will take many rounds of chemotherapy to get us anywhere near remission, and the prognosis will still be iffy, at best. How do you save the moral lives of legionnaires who have suckled at the teat of “Fox News” and their ilk for so long? They haven’t seen an honest bit of news reporting in thirty years. Their conception of reality has been warped, repeatedly.
Long road ahead of us, mon ami, filled with many daunting potholes of ignorance and idiocy and insurrection and ignominy. And while the rest of the world may be laughing at our sitcom, understandably and rightly so, the fact remains that America is still a major part of the machinery that runs the world. We, and by that I mean all decent nations, need to do our best to make sure the cogs and sprockets of the American machine are greased with honesty and forthrightness, not rusted by hypocrisy and bigotry and hegemony.
Stop playing nice with the man, and his political party, who cannot play nice. Draw the line in the sand. America is no longer a country that you should fear offending, because any sense of moral leadership has been poisoned by The Man Who Screwed Too Much. Do what you can to encourage decent people to find their way to a voting booth and maybe, perhaps, we can negate the Legion Who Worship at An Empty Altar. Fingers, crossed.
Well, now, dear friend. I suppose you didn’t expect such a response to a random comment you innocently composed. But these things happen here at Bonnywood, wherein certain triggers can be flipped and off I go. I apologize in advance for the next step.
Because said response just became my next blog post, surprising both of us.
I hope you approve.
Cheers.
Categories: The Journey
Bonnywood Manor 
You’ve said it so well.
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Thanks, Sadje. It gives me little pleasure to write these words, but I just had to get them out…
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Exactly!
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I approve. Hoping 3 November brings positive change.
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There has to be change, soon, or we may never recover…
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I approve. I’m not expecting change in November, but it would be a blessing for the Americans.
If change doesn’t come, I will actively lobby to get decent Americans who oppose trying
Trump to get a refugee status and be allowed to settle in Europe. You’d be more than welcome as they’re decent and most hard working, making Europe prosper again…
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Trust, I have been seriously contemplating moving to another country, dramatic as that might sound. At the same time, I also feel a duty to stay and fight. We’ll see how things go…
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Well, if, as you suspect, you never recover, there’s always a chance for individuals…
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Right on the button. The problem is, and what is no laughing matter is that, when pushed into his corner the Orange Buffoon is in charge of a big red button. That is not soothing, I know.
On another note, this is the good side of WordPress; It takes you on unplanned journeys into uncharted waters.
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Yep, that red button is a chilling thought. There was less anxiety about it at the beginning of Trump’s term, as he still had some fairly reputable people in key positions, tasked with keeping his fingers under control and changing his diaper. But he has since fired most of them (if they didn’t leave on their own) and the madhouse is no longer staffed by professionals…
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Hopefully straight out of the White House, next stop, Arkham. If he’s not crazy enough for that, and IF theres any kind of Supreme justice left, Sing Sing?
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I agree with you. When I think of what has happened to my country since D.Trump took office it blows my mind (and not in a good way). Why is it that so many Americans still follow him? Are they in some evil trance? He is a monster and must go. I will do my part by using my vote and a prayer.
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That’s what really gets me, how many people are still fervently following him. It’s clearly not a majority of the citizens (after all, Trump did not win the popular vote) but it is still very sizeable and they are doing massive amounts of damage to the integrity and safety of this country. At times I get very frustrated and feel helpless, but then I buck it up and jump back into action.
Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to make a comment!
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I remember the original comment and I read and re-read it a number of times. Unfortunately, other countries often have to listen and try to not offend, because the US has the equivalent of a three-year-old in charge, who can do all kinds of major damage during a temper tantrum. He’s levelled tariffs against us, again, after concluding a trade agreement where he supposedly got what he wanted. Diplomacy is gone and now we’re retaliating. I can’t believe that it’s come to that, and four years ago never would have believed it.
And that doesn’t begin to address the underbelly of pure hatred that he has unleashed, groomed, assisted and facilitated. As many have pointed out, it was always there, but what he has done is to give it legitimacy, and not just in the US. The hatred-defined losers of many nationalities see him as some sort of twisted saviour.
Many have compared him to Hitler, and while that may be going too far at the moment, there are definite similarities. If he gets another term, though… The rest of us may be forced to gang up on the US so that the threats and vindictiveness have less of an international impact. Generations of cooperation, leadership, trade agreements and friendship may be lost (are being lost) and replaced with mistrust and suspicion.
I think (I hope) he will be defeated.
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I definitely understand that many countries feel forced to “play nice” with the US, despite their misgivings about doing so. But I think the better plan is what you address in your third paragraph: The rest of the world (well, at least the decent countries) may have to band together and say “enough is enough”, especially if Trump manages to delegitimize the election like he’s been trying so hard to do all year.
And no, the Hitler comparison is not going too far. He’s a vindictive megalomaniac fueled by the vision of white supremacy and destruction of anyone who dares to challenge him. If the shoe fits…
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I missed your supremely well written comment. US Politics has gone from a reasonable amount of grudging give and take to take everything, give nothing but all the blame to whoever doesn’t wear the Maga cap. He’s a petulant child in a morons body.
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Thank you. 🙂 As a Canadian, it’s been really difficult watching this barbarous hulk squatting in the backyard of a good neighbour and friend.
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As a mild matter of interest I was born in Canada. Got the T-shirt, got the toque.
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Hahaha. 😀
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Amen. So to speak…
We had a campaigner worker stop by our house yesterday. Boy, did he get an earful from the other half, some of it quite colorful. Guarantee you he crossed our address off his list.
😉
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Interestingly enough, we don’t get many campaign workers around here, for any party. But we get lots of folks who are very invested in helping me find Jesus… 😉
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Which is so much worse. It’s hard to be rudely dismissive to those sweet old grandmothers they send door to door to sell that silly magazine.
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From up here north of the US border, it’s getting increasingly hard to watch. We don’t get Fox, thank goodness, not that I’d watch it anyway, but my heart hurts for my American friends. And then of course, it filters up here, where are Conservative party, which used to be a respectable choice, has become Republican lite. Luckily they’re not in power–yet.
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I just don’t understand this radical shift to the far right that is flaring in so many countries. Did we not learn anything about the dangers of fascism in World War II? Oh wait, I forgot, Trump has been slashing the education budget and his Secretary of Education is a full-blown idiot who hates education in general and public schools in particular. Sigh…
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It’s the anti-intellectualism movement that politicians love to see. Makes manipulating the masses so much easier.
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I, too, hope that 3rd November will bring you relief from this horrendous monstrosity. If it does, you can then enjoy yourself laughing at our expense, as we still have more than four years to endure of Numpty’s Mini-Me.
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Hopefully Trump will be given the boot and it will start a global trend of booting the Numpties and Mini-Mes…
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That would be a good start! We’re stuck with ours till Dec 2024, unless his party grow tired of his lies and incompetence.
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Hear ye, hear ye – Brian in the house today. You go, Brian.
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Thanks, Sheila. I always go. Even when I shouldn’t… 😉
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I keep thinking of that song that was EV-ER-Y-WHERE after 9/11, “Proud To Be An American”. Don’t hear it anymore, not even on the 4th of July. Trump & his ilk make us all look like dumbass fools. The rest of the world probably doesn’t realize how he & Smarmy Mitch hijacked the government and twisted it, how broken our system has become. Unfortunately, he won’t go down without a fight. I’m afraid it’s going to get worse before it gets better.☹
We need a Blue Tsunami to cleanse our country of the MAGA Mess!🌊🗳
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Here’s something interesting. In my native language “Maga” or “Maha” means “enormous”. So, your MAGA mess is just about right 🙂
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He and his followers are an enormous mess, most definitely!
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KBG: You’re exactly right: So many people, both in this country and in others, don’t realize how much damage has been done. Lots of folks have tuned out, not even following the news because they’re just sick of it, but that’s the worst thing they can do. We don’t want to wake up one day and find out it’s too late and we’re screwed…
LCaSC: Bingo! 😉
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No way is comparing Cadet Bonespurs to Hitler going to far (per one of your reader’s comments). The idiot’s ICE goons are forcibly sterilizing illegals aliens. First we cage their kids. Next we lose sight of the kids. And, as a final effort at genocide, we sterilize the women !
If that’s not Nazi-like, I don’t know what is !
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I’m right there with you. The early developments of what eventually became the horror of Nazi Germany are already taking place in this country, even if people don’t want to believe it. The Trump administration has no regard for law or decency and we could easily be on a slippery slope to our own horror show…
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You know, I am actually praying for your country, although I have no connection (except that my job is based there). If you guys get screwed, the rest of us are more so royally.
Good luck…
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That’s exactly it: What happens in America affects the rest of the world, to one degree or another. Every global citizen should be concerned about the next US election…
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My son was visiting this last week and we had several conversations touching on much of this. Everything is so messed up and I wonder if it can truly be made right again, and then I start wondering if we were fooling ourselves that it was ever right to begin with because if it was, then how did we get here?
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We may have discussed this before, but it’s worth repeating: I personally think we got here because of the Reagan administration. His team began the dismantling of libel and slander laws. This eventually allowed the birth of Fox news and their ilk. After all, there was a time when you could trust what you heard on the evening news, because they did not report a story unless it had been triple-verified. Now we have folks who are untethered from reality because they haven’t seen a fact-based news program in decades. And in that untethered alternate universe, hatred is a major factor and empathy doesn’t exist…
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