We’ve Come A Long Way …

Posted on by under Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry

We’ve come a long way from the civilized country we once were.  Our forefathers are either looking down groaning and holding their heads or laughing uproariously at what the United States of America has become.

On Monday, a pipe bomb was found in the mailbox of philanthropist (and democrat) George Soros.  Today, bombs were sent to former President Barack Obama, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and media outlet CNN.  Once upon a time, the United States was considered above such behaviour.  We were once considered “the leader of the free world”.  We were once a kinder, gentler nation, one that was looked up to, respected, and valued human rights, human life.  Today, we have sunken to the level of a third-world nation.

We refer to a number of nations, mostly in the Middle East, as ‘terrorist nations’, or ‘countries that harbour terrorists’.  The U.S. has now become just such a nation.  These bombs are acts of terrorism, and I would bet my life that they were not constructed and delivered by Middle Eastern terrorists, nor by Muslims nor Hispanics.  These were thought of, concocted and delivered by white males, unless I miss my guess.  White males who are angry for some reason that the majority of us cannot comprehend.

It would be easy to lay all this at the door of Mr. Trump, for he has been highly vocal in his rabid, vitriolic rhetoric condemning democrats and the press, Obama and Clinton.  And certainly, he must share some of the blame.  But the bulk of the blame is on We The People.  I have spoken enough times on this blog about the loss of civil discourse that I will not do so again today.

Today there are migrants from violent nations heading to the United States to seek asylum from the violence in their own countries.  Soon, I think, there may be caravans of U.S. citizens making their way to the Canadian border to seek asylum from the violence in our own nation. liberty-cries

“Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

These words, written by Emma Lazarus in 1883, once meant something.  They were words we were once proud of.  We have sullied the words, just as we have sullied the notion of democracy in the U.S. We no longer deserve to be known as a the ‘land of the free’, for we are not.

To Mr. Trump and to every person who has supported his hate-filled rhetoric, who applauds when he screams and incites violence, I hope you are pleased with yourselves today.  Understand that the majority in this nation do not feel as you do and that we have had just about enough.  We will fight back.  To whomever decided to make those bombs and attempt to murder good people like President Obama and Secretary Clinton, Mr. Soros, and the employees at CNN, I hope you are captured and spend the rest of your life in prison being beaten and abused in the worst possible way.

I am expecting a package to be delivered this week.  I wonder if I will hesitate before opening it?  Probably.  Isn’t this a sad state of affairs?

37 thoughts on “We’ve Come A Long Way …”

  1. Dear Jill,

    Here’s reality. According to the ADL (Anti-Defamation League) 71 percent of the extremist-related fatalities in the United States between 2008 and 2017 were committed by members of the far right or white-supremacist movements but Islamic extremists were responsible for just 26 percent.

    I am way more afraid of the US born right wing extremists than I am of any foreign terrorist activity.

    What I don’t get, is why there are conservative Jews like Sheldon Adelson who are donating millions of dollars to the coffers of Republican Party to help its candidates. They have to know that they are supporting an organization that has conspired to make those who sympathize or who are members of White Supremacist groups more normalized. These racist groups are also virulently ant-Semitic and they are more prone to resort to acts of violence.

    Hugs, Gronda

    Liked by 1 person

    • @ Gronda, it is because Adelson is not worried about the individual Jewish person. He wanted the embassy moved and he was willing to pay for it. He wants total recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel only , not shared or divided as the Palestinians want. Until tRump the republicans couldn’t deliver these things to him, now he has what his huge money donations have bought him. He doesn’t want a two state solution, he wants the palestinians to either be ruled over or gone. He is willing to spend big to get those things. Hugs

      Liked by 1 person

    • I’m with you there, Gronda. My two next-door neighbors are immigrants … Syrian refugees on one side, and Mexican immigrants on the other. I have no fear of either and my family & I are good friends with both. The person I fear most on our street is a Caucasian woman across the street who regularly spews hatred toward the Syrians and African-Americans on our street, though none have harmed her in any way.

      As to Adelson … money talks. That simple.

      Hugs.

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  2. I read this am (UK time 8am) that Trump mentioned in a speech he did not like people sending bombs to other people. Though he did not mention names.
    This has me wondering:
    (A) Is something finally getting through to him?
    (B) Is he afraid of his voter base because he mentioned no names of the targets. Would showing concern from them be heresy and his own crowd turn against him.?
    Riding the tiger Donnie, riding the tiger.

    Liked by 2 people

    • You read that just about the time I was shutting down the ol’ laptop and heading up the 15 steps to bed. No, nothing is finally getting through to him, for by this morning (our time) he was back to ranting and perpetuating conspiracy theories, blaming both democrats and the press. This whole thing just fell into his lap and he is going to milk it for all it is worth. But now for the frightening part. Democrats were projected by one of the more reliable polling sites, FiveThirtyEight to stand an 86% chance of winning the House. Today, that dropped to 83%. Okay, only a 3% drop and still largely favourable, but … there are another 11 days until the election and the rhetoric that is being spread about these bombs and their sender is toxic. Now, I am not proposing any notions or ideas, but …

      Liked by 1 person

  3. “My country, right or wrong; if right to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right.” – Carl Schurz on February 29, 1872. Our Country sorely needs to be set right. Thank-you!

    Liked by 2 people

  4. Oh and also Rush Limbaugh claimed this was a false flag operation where the democrats were sending bombs to each other. He said “Rush Limbaugh said Wednesday on his radio show that it could be a “Democratic operative” who mailed the packages. “Republicans just don’t do this kind of thing,” Limbaugh said. “. Hugs

    Liked by 2 people

  5. It will be interesting to see if tRump tones down his rhetoric or if he will go with the old favorites of his bigoted crowd. Let see if he gets his supporters to chant “Lock her up”, or if he attacks caravan as “hoards of invaders coming to overwhelm the border and take your medicare from you, the hard working people”. I just read how Putin is crowing about the decline of the USA. He now says the US is not a superpower anymore and went on a rant about our down fall and how happy he was to see it happening. I would say his investment in tRump has paid off well for him. Hugs

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  6. No Jill, we certainly cannot lay the blame at Trump’s feet. But while he’s not directly to blame, he certainly bares an indirect blame. He’s called for his main political rival to be locked up…accused Obama of ‘tapping’ his wires…and George Soros of paying Honduran refugees to come to the border. Not to mention his hate for CNN of course. Is it asking too much for a president of the USA to be civil? I’d like to think he might tone it down a bit after this…sadly, he won’t.

    Liked by 3 people

    • No, I think you are correct and he won’t tone it down … in fact, it is possible that he will use this to his advantage to stir even more sh**. I am already hearing rumours and lies of subterfuge and conspiracy. This is such a mess that I do not see how we can possibly begin to set this nation to rights until we rid ourselves of the abomination in the Oval Office.

      Liked by 1 person

  8. It’s a long hard path to get back to where the US was looked up to with respect. I think the answer lies with education. More money for teachers, more money for equipment. Stop these voucher schools an close down any of the religious schools that doesn’t teach the national curriculum . If religion must be taught in schools then each pupil must be taught about religions other than their own. And Christianity must not be taught as being literal from the bible. Science must be shown where aging things is concerned. Hopefully people will stat to respect each other if they know more of each other. Then it’s time to start on politicians. No more lies ! There must be penalties for doing so. I start the ball rolling but I’m sure you and your readers have plenty of ideas.

    Cwtch

    Liked by 4 people

    • Your ideas are all spot on and would make for a great start to climbing back up that steep slope that we have slid from, but in order to implement anything … in order to even make a beginning … we must elect some leaders with values, some who see that our current path is one that can only lead to destruction. You are right … the lies must stop! The incitement of violence from the head of government is unconscionable … nay, criminal … and must be stopped. And then, we must find a way to take out the trash and hire some people who care more about people than their bank accounts. Sigh. You have great ideas … wanna come be our president? 😉
      Cwtch

      Liked by 1 person

  9. Jill, quite simply, this stuff has to stop. No one deserves to die in our country based on their political persuasion or for any other reason, except maybe if a life is truly threatened. The same story could be said about the person who shot up the GOP baseball practice last year. The same could be said for white supremacist running over twenty people in Charlottesville, killing one….It goes on.

    We need the President and others to dial down the rhetoric which is a nice word for BS. We need for them to quit demonizing the opposing party. We need for the President to stop lying and start telling more truths than he does not. He lies to his followers more than anyone.

    I am an independent. Neither party has all the good ideas and both have some bad ones. But, I am tired of the President, who is supposed to represent all the people, reveal our worst habits on an hourly basis. I am tired of sycophantic politicians telling people like him who espouse this BS not being hypercritical. More leaders need to call these people on the carpet, especially the President.

    I am tired of politicians focusing on keeping their jobs. We need them to do their jobs. I just read Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan secretively called CEOs who pulled out of Trump’s Economic Council after his horrible Charlottesville response. How about telling the public out loud and in full force that the President is dead wrong on this and should be ashamed? We are Americans and we fought the Nazis.

    I would say the same thing if someone sent a bomb to the White House. This stuff has to stop. Each politician and especially the President need to look in the mirror. That is who needs to change. Keith

    Liked by 6 people

    • You know I agree with you, my friend. But how do we make it stop? The person at the head of the table needs to pass the message downwind, but he is highly unlikely to do so. I honestly do not look for Trump to tone down his b.s And even if he did, I think the rampant craziness among his base has passed the point of no return and that we are going to see more, rather than less of this. How do we force Trump to step up to the plate and make it clear to his base that this is unacceptable? How can we, when the sycophants, the boot-lickers in Congress continue to pander to his every whim?

      Yes, it needs to stop. But how do we make it?

      Liked by 2 people

      • Jill, Trump is a short term zero sum guy. One of the worst traits of developers is to develop, get your money and get out, leaving the problems for someone else. So, he cares little about future headwinds he causes, but he also chooses not to understand them.

        He is all about how something makes him look NOW. So, the only way he will act more reasonably and somewhat like a leader is to embarass the hell out of him for his actions. He does not apologize often or like to backtrack on a position. He needs to be shown that lying and his bullying will embarass him. The sad part is his cult does not care and people like Limbaugh, Hannity and Jones have no problem spouting BS. Keith

        Liked by 1 person

        • Your words say it all … he is short-term and cares only for the rewards HE can reap today. If he leaves the nation, nay — the world, in disarray, it will matter not to him, for at his age, he likely won’t live to see the ultimate destruction he has wrought. I honestly believe the world would have been better off if his mother had accidentally drowned him in the bath when he was a baby, for he is the personification of evil. But now that the wheels are in motion, even if he is ‘de-throned’ tomorrow, his minions and the likes of Hannity/Jones/Graham/Limbaugh will carry on. Where are Kennedy/Johnson/King when you need them???

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  10. Hi Jill,
    Bombs through the mail shows a fear of discovery. These people are haters enough to do this, but not willing to take responsibility for their actions. Not to give them credit, but even terrorists take responsibility for their acts of terrorism, these people are not even worthy of the name terrorists. They are just plain attempted murderers.
    But what more could we expect from Trump’s minions? Trump doesn’t take responsibility for half the things he does either…

    Liked by 3 people

    • ‘Tis true that when the ‘leader’ of a nation is a bully, a coward, and a liar, there will be some who see that as the new standard and they are much too willing to sink to such depths themselves. I would still classify whoever perpetrated this act as ‘terrorists’, although I do understand your reasoning. But their intent was to create fear among a certain group of people (democrats who speak out against Trump). Fortunately they didn’t succeed, for we are mostly just mad. The other reason I would classify them as terrorists, is that it ensures they will get harsher treatment under law if caught, and I want them to be treated as harshly as possible. Meanwhile, there are hundreds of ignorant, false rumours swirling about. Stay tuned …

      Liked by 1 person

  11. What’s really sad is to believe people are so manipulated. We are an angry, aggressive society. That comes from within. Maybe it’s time to point a finger inward instead of outward. Honesty would be recognizing the hateful rhetoric coming from most prominent sources today but to blame these people for individual actions does not solve or eliminate the problem. Someone could tell me to jump off the bridge but luckily I know I am responsible for my actions as well as understanding the consequences so I wouldn’t do it.

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    • It pays us at this point to remember that the fools are NOT the majority. The majority of people in this nation did NOT vote for Donald Trump and do not support him. The majority would never considering placing a bomb in somebody’s mail box. The majority would never curse people in public for speaking Spanish or just simply having black skin. The majority have compassion for our fellow man, care about people and would give our last morsel of food to a starving child. But the minority are loud, brash, crass and ugly, and therefore they get all the attention. In turn, that makes us all feel that evil must surely have taken over the world. But it hasn’t … those of us with consciences and values simply need to speak a bit louder in order to be heard.

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      • I agree with some of what you said but not all. I do believe more rational people do need to speak over the crazies making noise in this country. I do not judge people for who they voted for and I don’t see the purpose of lumping people into groups. We are individuals and we see things and the world different ways. The mistake we make is that we assume we know who the fools are or what the majority believes but we really don’t. The country is pretty much split right down the middle and people have valid reasons for supporting either side. We tell ourselves stories based on the worst of each crowd and we become victims by pointing fingers back and forth and making assumptions about people that more times than not just aren’t true. I refuse to participate in that. We are human beings first. More than our political affiliation or gender or race or anything else.

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        • The most relevant part of what you say is: “We are human beings first.” And I agree 100% with that. On other things, we may agree to disagree, as they say, but as long as we all remember the compassionate, the humanitarian, we can disagree without hate, without vitriol, without violence. I’m always open to others’ ideas, in fact I welcome them. At this point, I think that we have pretty much made a mockery of democracy by putting and keeping Donald Trump in office, and yes, I have a problem with anybody who still, tonight, after everything, supports the ‘man’. But I don’t hate, and I would not harm. I would just like to have a government that recalls We The People.

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